The second day of this year’s IPA Congress continued the discussion with a greater focus on the Malaysian market, the UN SDGs, and the biggest threat to the industry, our lack of positivity.

By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox

On the second day of the IPA Congress, the program focused on insights from the Malaysian market, how the publishing industry engages with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how publishers should not only be courageous in their work, they should also think positively.

Starting off the day was a keynote by Malaysia’s 10^th National Laureate Dato’ Dr Anwar Ridhwan entitled “Traditionalist’s Inquiry: Is Literary Depth Fading in the Digital Age?” which was delivered in Malay.

In the keynote, Ridhwan highlighted that every era evolves its own forms of expression, but the important thing we must focus on is developing a reading culture based on knowledge equity and infrastructure.

“Technology has expanded access to information,” said Ridhwan. “Reading habits in the digital age have challenged deep and reflective reading.”

Though Ridhwan is a traditionalist, he supports the digital age for its democratization of knowledge, translation technology which allows readers to engage with different cultures, and the coexistence of visual culture and text.

“I realize that we are facing a challenge, but the challenge is not to reject technology but to cultivate wisdom in using technology,” said Ridhwan. “Meaningful reading habits do not only depend on the medium, but the seriousness and sensitivity of the reader.”

Following Ridhwan’s speech was a report from Adibah Omar, CEO of Malaysia’s Book City Corporation, who reported on Malaysia’s book voucher program in schools which was created to make books more accessible to a wider population of readers as well as support the publishing ecosystem in Malaysia.

“We discovered that before building a reading nation, we first had to redefine something much more fundamental,” said Omar. “We had to redefine what books actually represent in national development, because perhaps books are not simply products, perhaps they are part of a nation’s infrastructure.”

Omar reported that, in 2024, the first year of the program, there was a 100% redemption value by 3,566,544 students. But the essential part of the program is that government and the publishing industry must work together.

“When government intentionally creates readers, the publishing industry grows, readers gain access to better books, greater diversity, more innovation, national objectives, and commercial objectives,” said Omar. “[When government and the industry] are intentionally aligned, they reinforce one another, and that becomes the principle behind every major intervention we designed.”

The access to knowledge, information, and education is a key aspect of many of the UN SDGs.

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Book Culture, shared the importance of access to books as a key way of combating the global literacy crisis.

“We are not merely in the business of publishing content, we are in the business of access and the business of possibility. [We must ask ourselves] who is still waiting to be reached by publishing today?” said Al Qasimi. “More than 739 million adults lack basic literacy skills. Hundreds of millions of children are on the same trajectory. It’s time we treated [this inequity] with intention and resolve.”

Not only does the industry need to address the literacy crisis, but also the rise of misinformation (particularly around the climate crisis), the lack of inclusion, and the constant threats to the trinity of freedoms.

While the acronym DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) might be getting a lot of backlash around the world, Dr. Michiel Kolman, Senior VP Research Networks, Elsevier and Louise Stark, CEO, Hachette Australia & New Zealand and Chair of Australia Reads, discussed how “belonging” has become a far more comprehensive term and one that provides a deeper connection as well as a financial benefit for the publishers.

“First, there is a business case for inclusion and for organizations that embrace inclusive culture,” said Kolman. “They perform better financially, they make better decisions, they’re better at attracting talent and retaining talent. This was true 10 years ago, 5 years ago, and today.”

Stark agreed and shared insight from her team at Hachette, “Our aim is to make sure our workforce reflects the society we operate in. In Australia, that means one in two people have a parent born elsewhere, so half of our population is second-generation Australians and our workforce should look like that.”

Stark noted that to attract a diverse workforce, they have networks that are run by the younger people in the business to create cross-functional friendships, events, and spaces that feel inclusive and provide a sense of safety and belonging.

“[For young people], they can discover joy at work, they can work well, giving us a commercial benefit, and [the network] also fosters ambition – ambition for themselves, for our books, and our authors.”

Around the world, not only is finding ways to belong difficult, but even the protection for writers and publishers who are threatened.

“Happening around the world, we’ve had the rise of authoritarian regimes, so independent thinkers, independent media are all being attacked,” said Romana Cacchioli, Executive Director, PEN International.

“We’ve got book banning, but we’ve also got media attacks, long drawn-out allegations and prosecutions around defamation using overly broad terrorism laws, poorly defined internet freedoms, and defamation suits, so there’s really a whole toolbox of ways that states and non-state actors attack independent thinkers and writers.”

While PEN International is there to provide support, it’s the responsibility of the entire international publishing ecosystem to protect these freedoms that are being infringed upon more and more each day.

To close out the day and end on a high note, former CEO of Penguin Random House Markus Dohle ended the Congress with a keynote encouraging publishers to be positive amid the challenges they may be facing from middle-grade reading crisis, perceived threat of AI, book banning, among other issues.

“We are storytellers and I’ve always wondered why we are so bad at telling our own story,” said Dohle. Going through all of the media headlines that claimed the end of print, the industry, and more, Dohle showed evidence to the contrary and suggested publishers are the industry’s worst hype people. Instead, he suggests the industry be more positive because we aren’t going anywhere.

“As Margaret Atwood says, you’re never going to kill storytelling because it’s built into the human plan, it’s part of our DNA.”